A Guide to Winterizing Your Home in the Country

Prepare your country homestead for cold weather with these tips, including how to winterize the plumbing, overwinter the garden, and keep livestock healthy and comfortable under shelter.

This DIY pump warmer uses a light bulb to keep the pump from freezing

KAY HOLMES STAFFORD

When preparing your home for the coming winter, don't forget to clean out the chimney while the weather's still good, to avoid chimney fires.

PHOTO: JOHN KLEINHANS

Keep the worst of the frost out of the cellar with a computer-cooler fan.

KAY HOLMES STAFFORD

For extra insulation, double-wrap windows with plastic sheeting, stapled on and held with lath, inside and out.

KAY HOLMES STAFFORD

Keep pipes from freezing with heat tape. Apply carefully: don't let the tape twist or overlap, and secure it well.

KAY HOLMES STAFFORD

Swifts glue their stick nests partway down unused flues in the spring and abandon them when they fly to wintering grounds. If you share your countryside with these birds, you'll need to clear the nests from your chimney in the fall.

KAY HOLMES STAFFORD

Reserve one section of the garden for an early start in the spring by raking up a couple of raised beds and covering them with black plastic sheeting weighed down with planks.

KAY HOLMES STAFFORD

Keep chickens watered with heater bases for their waterers.

KAY HOLMES STAFFORD

Protect young trunks from winter winds with tar-paper trunk wrap. A loose tube of several thicknesses of poultry wire will keep rodents from debarking young fruit trees.

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